Michigan Nature Association

The Michigan Nature Association is an association in the U.S. state of Michigan which was established in 1952. It is a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting Michigan's exceptional natural habitats and extraordinary and endangered plants and animals. It has preserved 172 nature sanctuaries in 58 counties throughout Michigan.

It all started with bird watching. Bertha Daubendiek and a few of her friends started an organization for the birds.

In 1951, a bird study group in Macomb County was formed to protect wildlife, hoping to keep Michigan in a natural state. Their first project was protesting the destruction of a tern colony at Metropolitan Beach. This is also when the first name change came about to the St. Clair Metropolitan Beach Sanctuary Association. They started weekend nature exhibits, guided tours, and published a study course. In 1955, the Junior Nature Patrol (JNP), a branch of the St. Clair Metropolitan Beach Sanctuary Association, was formed. In two years, the membership of JNP reached 5,000. But even with all of the educational efforts, the group realized that no wild land was being saved. This is when the organization began its preservation of nature, as we know it today.

The first purchase, made in 1960, was Red Wing Acres in St. Clair County. Soon after, three more properties were purchased. During this time of land acquisitions, the St. Clair Metropolitan Beach Sanctuary Association did not stop in their efforts to protect wildlife. They led a fight for pollution abatement in Mill Creek near Yale and protested drilling in the Port Huron State Game Area, keeping their plates full of environmental issues from every angle. In 1965, they once again changed their name to the Eastern Michigan Nature Association. More properties were purchased, and a gift was given resulting in eight sanctuaries in Northern Michigan, thus leading to the last name change in 1970 to the Michigan Nature Association (MNA). In the same year, MNA started a project in the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is one of MNA's prize sanctuaries known as The Estivant Pines.

By 1971, MNA had grown so large that Bertha Daubendiek, founder of the group in 1951 and executive secretary since 1952, changed her part-time volunteer status to full-time. MNA continued to protect Michigan's wildlife, and in 1974 Bertha received an award as one of Michigan's top ten volunteers by Governor Milliken.

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